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Side Quest - Paris (Part 1)

This blog post actually has its origins in early 2020. That spring, The Metropolitan Museum of Art was hosting a major  Gerhard Richter retrospective at their Met Breuer location. Gerhard Richter is one of my favorite contemporary artists, so plans were made for a big NYC trip in June that would include the Richter retrospective and more. Then COVID happened. The Met's blockbuster retrospective, originally scheduled to run March 4 - July 5 lasted just over a week, closing, as much of the world did, after March 12. It was disappointing to be sure, but I wasn't alone there. In truth, if your dashed travel plans were the worst thing that happened over those weeks and months and years, you could rightly count yourself among the lucky. Still, it was a missed opportunity, and one that stayed with me over the years. Fast forward five years to the late summer of 2025 when I learned that the Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris was mounting an even bigger Gerhard Richter retrospective   ...
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Recent posts

Where Was I?

I feel like I've been slacking recently in my efforts to keep up with this blog and the work that's been happening at the Akron almost-mansion. That's a testament I think to how busy I've been, and also to how weirdly routine this whole project has become. I don't want to say the novelty has worn off (the house still offers its share of surprises), but we'have fallen into some pretty regular patterns this winter. We drive the 110 miles north almost every weekend to patch, sand, prime, and paint. We spend a day and a half covering ourselves in the dust of the 20th century's finest paints, wallpapers, hardwoods, and plaster and then traverse the same 110 miles back home. We move garbage, cardboard, tools, and equipment out of one room and into another (and then out to the garage). We go up and down two flights of steps; first for the joint compound tape, then for our masks, and then again for the right screwdriver. We misplace tools only to trip over them minu...
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You Win With People! Family Edition

In a previous post , I channeled my inner-Woody Hayes to offer shout outs to the contractors who are helping make our Akron almost-mansion a habitable reality. Now, I want to give shout outs to the family who have been with us every step of the way too. A pair of siblings are seated on a functioning radiator in an otherwise empty room, save a portable table saw. They are smiling and appear happy. Before we embarked on this journey we held a "family meeting" where I laid out our plan (such as it was. LOL.) and described what we were going to need to make this project happen. Specifically, I made clear that my wife and I couldn't do this without their help. We lived (and still live) 110 miles away from the house we're trying to rehabilitate. I shared their would be times folks might be called upon to meet contractors, accept deliveries, take out trash, and otherwise represent our interests in matters related to the house. A group of people are pictured raking an unreaso...
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You Win With People! Contractor Edition

You win with people. In Columbus, Ohio and particularly around The Ohio State University campus, it's a saying that's both well-known and well-loved. I use the phrase lot a myself, partly in earnest, and partly in sardonic reference to the deeply flawed and equally revered man who made it famous, OSU football coach Woody Hayes. Hayes coached The Ohio State University's football team to remarkable success during his two-decades plus career. Along the way he wrote a book ( You Win With People! ), supported Nixon, said objectionable things, and often exhibited such a volatile temper that one might rightly wonder why people would stick around long enough to do any winning at all. But I digress. As with most maxims, this one is true. Woody Hayes was right. You really do win with people. Sure, plans help. Budgets help. Strategies help and material resources help. At the end of the day though, success in any endeavor hinges on people. I've been thinking about this a lot in the...
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Side Quest - Chicago

While we've spent a lot of time this year working on the Akron almost-mansion, I don't want people to get the impression that's the only thing we do. Though it's maybe not reflected all the time in this blog, my wife and I have interests that extend beyond removing wallpaper, wandering around big box home improvement stores, and talking with contractors. Music and art remain interests of ours and we're quite happy to travel either when we can. A few weeks ago we went to Chicago and got to enjoy both. My wife is the biggest Patti Smith fan I know, yet she'd never seen her live. So when Patti Smith announced a series of concerts to commemorate the 50th anniversary of her seminal album, "Horses" we jumped at the chance and purchased tickets for one of the shows at the iconic Chicago Theater. It was an amazing show, made even more special by the fact that Smith was born in Chicago and clearly holds the city close in her heart. The band and the venue sounde...
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During

I feel like home renovation programs and content creators focus a lot on the before and after comparisons. To the extent that the goal of these undertakings is typically to go from one (before) to the other (after), this makes perfect sense. What gets lost though in this focus on results and comparisons is what it's like during the process. I was especially struck by this over the last month. During that time we've had four separate contractors in the house working on four separate rooms or projects.  Bill has been working on the kitchen. Matt is doing the second floor en suite bathroom. David and Pecos are doing drywall, and James has been doing some miscellaneous electrical work. And that's just the regulars. Add in the garage door technicians and the crew that came out to install the new radiator, and the almost mansion has been busier than ever in recent weeks. And it shows. Not only do people need room to work, they also need places to stage and store fixtures, materia...
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Renovation Vacation

Back in August my wife and I decided to each take a week off from our respective works and embark on a "Renovation Vacation" at the Akron almost-mansion. The impetus behind the trip was two-fold. One consideration was our realization that it's really hard to make any kind of concerted progress when you live two hours from a job site. By the time we get everything packed for a typical trip, drive to the house, get our work area organized and start working, it's just about time to head back home. The other consideration was that with all the delays we've seen with this house, we thought it would be good for morale if we could make even some small progress on our own. The plan then was to spend a week "camping out" at the house and doing light projects and cleaning while we were there. I say camping out since it's kind of what it was like. Yes, the house has electric and 70% plumbing (including two functional toilets), but there's no heat, no kitche...
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